Thursday 23 July 2015

Nigerian President Shuts Down Questions On Gay Rights In US Supreme Court



Muhammadu Buhari, the new president of Nigeria, visited US Congress yesterday (Wednesday 9th July), where he shut down any questions on marriage equality in his home country.

Speaking at a joint session of the senate and house committees on foreign affairs during his four day visit Buhari said emphatically that gay sex would remain illegal in Nigeria and is found to be 'abhorent' to African culture.

Femi Adeisna, the president's special adviser on media and publicity, later tweeted to clarify Buhari's stance.  'The issue of gay marriage came up here yesterday.  PMB was point blank.  Sodomy is against the law in Nigeria, and abhorrent to our culture.  Talks shifted to another matter once PMB emphatically stated Nigeria's stand on same sex marriage.  The issue was not pushed.'

Nigeria has one of the harshest anti-gay laws in the entire world, which bans gay marriage and can punish any same sex couples with up to 14 years in prison, with 10 year sentences being applied to anyone else who was involved in the ceremony, including guests in attendance.

Last week US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said that the US would be mounting substantial pressure on the Nigerian government to rethink its harsh laws, though these pressures would appear to not yet be in place is they could not even press the issue during Buhari's visit.

Amy.
xx

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Disabled Transgender Woman Recorded Her Stepfather Raping Her


It has been revealed in a Melbourne court hearing that a disabled transgender woman who cannot be named for legal reasons, used her i-Pad to film her stepfather raping her.

The woman, who is confined to a wheelchair, was reportedly in her kitchen in her home when her stepfather began to assault her by grabbing her breasts and thrust himself onto her.  when he left the room the victim set up her tablet device to record what she knew would be coming next.

Detective Brad Beale testified to the courtroom that the victim had previously refused to have sex with her stepfather a week before, but was left bleeding when he ignored her protests and raped her anyway. 

Beale went on to inform the court that the woman's stepfather had admitted to having sex with the victim close to 30 times over the last 6 years, but claims that his stepdaughter had propositioned him and threatened to to make false police reports if he refused.

The stepfather has been denied bail and the case will resume in October.

Amy.
xx

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Actor Troy Baker Leaves Twitter Following Backlash After Caitlyn Jenner Tweet


Troy Baker is one of the video games industries most prolific actors, having stared in highly regarded games such as Resident Evil 6, The Last of Us, Far Cry 4, Call of Duty:Advanced Warfare, Metal Gear Solid 5 and Batman Arkham Origins to name just a few.  It's actually very hard to play a modern game and not find his name somewhere in the credits.

A massively popular Actor Toy Baker had a huge following on Twitter, before yesterday choosing to leave the site for an unspecified amount of time.  The reason why?  He tweeted a comment that referenced Caitlyn Jenner and received a backlash because of it.

Now, the comment in question, it should be noted, was not something that Baker himself said, but a re-tweet of a comment made by Brian W. Foster.  The tweet has since been deleted, but consisted of;

'Brett Michaels looks like Mickey Rourke tried to become Caitlyn Jenner.'

Following the criticism levelled at him for sharing the tweet Baker eventually tweeted that he was quitting the site, though his profile has not been deleted, which may mean that he intends to return to the site after an unspecified amount of time has passed.

A lot of fans of Bakers have come to his defence and have been decrying the criticism as an unjust attack.  As is often the case when arguments spark on twitter the arguments range from the reasoned to the outright vicious on both sides.  One of the most common comments raised by his supporters though is that it was simply a joke, and that people need to learn to get a sense of humour.

Now, this is a defence that we have all seen so many times before, and it may have actually been something that Baker saw to be funny and wanted to share with his followers.  The problem comes, however, from the fact that a minority that still doesn't have basic human rights shouldn't be used as part of a joke.

Trans people are regularly discriminated against all over the world, with the laws stacked against us when we try to demand justice.  To use a group that can still be legally fired simply for being born a certain way in America, the 'greatest country in the world', seems wrong in a lot of ways.

What a lot of Bakers supporters might not be aware of too, is that on the same day that this 'joke' involving a trans woman was made not just one, but two transgender women were brutally murdered.  The trans community was acutely aware of that, they were grieving, so of course they lashed out.

Those kind of jokes aren't appropriate at the best of times, but making them yesterday was just crass and thoughtless.  An equivalent would have been making racist jokes during the Charleston Shooting, or police brutality jokes when Sandra Bland was killed.  So no, we won't 'lighten up' or 'get a sense of humour', how about instead you stop being insensitive and cruel to a minority that is literally being murdered on the same day you tell trans jokes.

Amy.
xx

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Transgender Woman Nephi Luthers Murdered In Georgetown Guyana


Whilst still mourning the death of one transgender women from Florida, India Clarke, the transgender community was hit with another blow when mere hours later a second transgender woman was reported killed, this time in Georgetown, Guyana.

The Guyana Transgender United Group broke the news on Wednesday that Nephi Luthers was killed whilst involved in a discussion with a man in the heart of the capital.  Nephi, a sex worker, was speaking to one of her clients when the man pulled out a gun and shot Nephi in the head.

Despite the quick response from her fiends and colleagues who rushed her to the nearest hospital Nephi was pronounced dead upon arrival.

As of yet reports are that no members of Nephi's family have come forwards to claim her body.

As is so often in cases of transgender murder the media are reporting Nephi's case with little to no regard for who she was, or even common decency.  Media outlets are using her birth name and male pronouns to identify her, and bringing her character into judgement because of the line of work she was in.

A woman was murdered in the street, killed like an animal and once again the media is trying to turn a heinous crime into a judgement on the victim.  It was her fault for dressing as a female, it was her fault for engaging in sex work, she put herself in that danger.

I'm sorry, but no.  No.  Nephi's death was not 'her fault', if the media wants to blame anyone then blame the monster who killed her in cold blood.  Stop blaming the victims.  Stop dehumanising trans women.  Treat these women with a little common decency.  #HerNameWasNephi

Rest in peace Nephi.

Amy.
xx

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Wednesday 22 July 2015

South Carolina Pastor Who Likes Wearing Confederate Flag T-shirts Wants Governor To Let Him Discriminate Against LGBT


South Carolina pastor Daren Squires, pictured above in his Confederate flag shirt, has written to the governor asking her to pass into law a bill that would allow him to openly discriminate against LGBT parishioners.

Apparently Squires has said that whilst he currently welcomes members of the LGBT community into his church he makes it very clear to them that he does not support them.

Squires sent out a letter to the governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, asking her to sign an executive order that would make it legal for himself, and others, to discriminate based on sexual orientation.  Though based on his choice of clothing I wouldn't be surprised if he's planning on sending a similar letter regarding race.

The letter reportedly said 'It doesn't matter if a man goes with a man, that's his choice.  My problem is they're going to try and make us, who do not believe in that, to have to bow down and accept them.'

The governor has so far not replied to Squires' letter or released a comment on the story.

Amy.
xx

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Transgender Woman India Clarke Found Murdered in Tampa, Florida


The body of a 25 year old transgender woman India Clarke was discovered in a park in Tampa, Florida in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Last seen by her parents Sunday evening India was discovered by an employee at the University Area Community Centre located at 14013 N. 22nd Street in Tampa.  Her body was reportedly found lying beside the basketball courts.

This news comes as yet another terrible tragedy, our community has lost another beautiful young life to horrific violence.

Unfortunately as is frequently common in cases of media reporting the murder of transgender women local Tampa news network WTSP television news has been reporting the story as 'Man Dressed As Woman Found Murdered', repeatedly use male pronouns and use her birth name over her real identity.  They have even tried to defame her character by reporting about an old arrest charge she had on her record.

An amazing young woman is dead and the media refuses to even report the story correctly, they refuse to accept her gender and try to defame her character.

Please don't do the same.  Speak her name, tell people about the tragedy that happened to her and respect her memory.  Her name was India, she was a member of our community and she has been taken from the world.  Fight to find her killer, honour her memory and spread her story.  #HerNameWasIndia.

Rest in peace India.

Amy.
xx

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Tuesday 21 July 2015

Finding Acceptance on My Birthday

As you can probably tell from the title, today is my birthday.  I woke up to a pile of presents and some birthday cards and began opening them before heading off to work.  I came to the present from my parents, wrapped in pink paper and consisting of cosmetics and perfume.  Nothing new there, my parents have been giving me more and more feminine presents for birthdays and Christmas for a while now.  What did stand out, though, was the card they sent me.  They'd given me cards with my name in before, switched over to female pronouns, but this was the first time that I'd been sent a card with the word daughter on it.

I opened my card, saw what was on it and I cried.  Hell, I'm starting to well up a little now just writing about it.  Everything I'd been given for my birthday, all the messages on Facebook, the cards from friends and family, the presents, even my new pet cat, none of them came close to making me feel as special as that card did.

Having that one simple word on the front meant more to me than words can even adequately begin to describe.  It meant that not only were my parents tolerating or supporting my transition, it meant that they were supporting it.

I'm sure that there will still be the odd occasion where my dad still doesn't quite know how to handle things, and that we may still disagree from time to time, but I can't help but feel positive about our future relationships now.

I'm sure that some people who are reading this won't understand why I'm making such a big deal out of this, and I'd be guessing that you're cisgender.  Well, for a trans person their is nothing more amazing than being accepted and respected for who you are.  To finally receive that from my parents, after the years of fear that I might lose them from my life, that was the greatest birthday present I could have received today.

Amy.
xx

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Monday 20 July 2015

Internet 'Celebrity' Carter Reynolds Threatens Suicide After Recieving Abuse For Trying To Force Underage Girl To Perform Oral Sex

 

An Internet 'celebrity' Carter Reynolds has come under fire following the alleged leak of a sex tape featuring both himself and fellow Internet 'star' and long time girlfriends Maddie Lindemann.

The tape was apparently leaked after Reynolds' iCloud account was hacked.  The tape showed an intoxicated Lindemann being pressured to perform oral sex on Reynolds whilst being filmed.  Lindemann, who was under the legal age of consent at the time, refuses.  She states on camera that she feels uncomfortable doing it.  Reynolds can be heard telling her to 'just do it' several times, even after she once again tells him that she does not want to.

Reynolds has since released an apology to his fans, stating;

'Some of you guys have a HUGE misunderstanding.  First of all, Maggie and I were dating at the time..it's not like she was a random girl or a fan.  Couples do stuff like that all the time...and no I'm not saying that it's the right thing to do but it's the truth.  It was supposed to be a private video for no one to see and i had no intention of posting it at all.  I shouldn't have recorded anything to begin with and I should've just deleted it right after I took it. 

'This video was taken a long time ago and unfortunately someone illegally hacked into my iCloud recently and ended up leaking that specific video.  Yes, saying 'do it' a couple of times and 'come on' was wrong on so many levels...I should've just stopped asking when she said 'no' the first time...and for that I'm very sorry to everyone that I offended and especially Maggie.

'After that night, Maggie and I were completely fine and just moved on with our relationship.  Some people are blowing things WAY our of proportion and making up all these false accusations about me saying that I raped her or forced her into doing something that she didn't want to do...well all of that is a lie.  You can believe whoever and whatever you want but at the end of the day I know everything that I just old you are straight up facts.

 'This wasn't my statement by the way...I wish a lot of you guys knew everything I just said earlier but I just couldn't think of what to say because I was so overwhelmed by all of the hate and negativity towards me.  Thank you for hearing what I have to say and once again I am very sorry about all of this.  Love you guys.'

Reynolds also attempted to start the hash tag #WeLoveYouCarter as a way of his fans being able to show that they support him and wish him all the best during his hard time being blamed for what he did wrong.

Reynolds was met with some severe criticism following his apology, with people both accusing him of lying about the iCloud hack in order to 'play the victim' and gain sympathy, as well as trying to manipulate his fans in order to gain support and sympathy.  Whilst this tactic worked with many fans who tweeted supportive messages, many people tweeted their displeasure at what he had done.


The controversy over what Reynolds tried to make his underage girlfriend do has been reignited today.  Whilst in the middle of a live web chat with his fans where he verbally abused Maggie Lindemann and threatened to reveal her sexual exploits for not reciprocating his attempts to repair their relationship, Reynolds received a telephone call from Lindemann informing him that if he did not cease she would telephone the police.

Unphased by the threat Reynolds continued to spout abuse about the young girl before he was interpreted a second time by another telephone call informing him that Linemann had been taken into hospital.  It was at this point that he ended his web chat.

Reynolds claimed that after ending the chat he immediately visited Lindemann and that the two of them were 'now okay'.  Things quickly turned sour, however, when Reynolds tweeted that Linemann had told him that she was in hospital due to him.  His reaction to this was pretty poor.


His attempt to attack Lindemann and hold her responsible backfired spectacularly, however, and he received a torrent of abuse for abusing a hospitalised teenager.  In a series of tweets Reynolds claimed that he had been pushed to breaking point by the people throwing abuse at him and has threatened to kill himself.  The last activity on his Twitter account was 10 hours ago in which he tweeted the single word 'bye'.  there is currently no indication whether Reynolds has actually attempted to harm himself or not.

The problem with this whole situation though isn't a young man potentially trying to kill himself, it's the massively negative effect his actions up to now have had.  And I'm not just talking about what has happened to Maggie Lindemann.  Whether you hold any stock in Internet 'celebrities' like Reynolds or not the scary fact is that he has literally millions of followers and subscribers.  People listen to him, particularly young people.

The danger with having a manipulative young man like Reynolds being someone young girls look up to has become apparent just from the reactions he is getting from his fans.  When his video 'leaked' thousand of teenage girls came to his defence, and not only that, but they were placing the blame at the feet of Maggie Lindemann.  That's right, teenage girls who should have viewed that video as warning of the dangers of sexual abuse were instead engaging in victim blaming.

Yes, Lindemann was drinking underage, and she did tell him to take his pants off in the video, she instigated the event, but most importantly she changed her mind.  Just because someone is drunk, just because someone starts out wanting to engage in sexual acts doesn't mean that if that consent is removed then it's okay to carry on.  Yet that's the message he is teaching these impressionable young women.  He is making rape culture okay.  He is making victim blaming okay, and these young people are helping him.

He went on to harass and humiliate his ex-girlfriend in such a public away that she ended up in the hospital, yet even then failed to stop.  His attacks were relentless and without any form of human compassion.  The only person he cared about was himself and getting more media attention.

I can only hope that not only will Maggie Lindemann make a full recovery but that Carter Reynolds fans come to their senses and see that his actions are wrong.  I hope that they see that his actions are not 'love', that love is not harassment, that it is not forcing your partner into sex acts they don't wish to do, it's not bullying and abusing them because they want to leave you and won't take you back.  Carter Reynolds is an abuser, plain and simple, and should be used as an example of the kind of actions that are not acceptable and the kind of men that young women should avoid at all costs.

Amy.
xx

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Thursday 16 July 2015

Phone Company 3 Appologises After Transphobic Advert

Three Ireland is currently receiving a large amount of criticism following the release of a billboard add that many people are condemning as being transphobic.

As part of their mobile data campaign the company released a billboard advertisement featuring the phrase, 'Sorry Vodafone customers, it turned out he was a she after you'd used all your data'.

Despite a number of public complaints on the social network Twitter, Three insist that it was never their intention to offend anyone.

The company has stated that 'It's part of a wider campaign that gives examples of when you can often miss the best bits of TV/films when you're streaming because you've used all your data.  Another example in the campaign is 'Sorry Vodafone customers, Ireland scored the winning try after you'd used all your data'.  Again, we're sorry for any offence caused and hope this explains the concept and that no offence was intended at all.'

Despite the outrage from many people who found the advert offencive, a number of people came to the companies defence, claiming that their intentions were clearly not to mock trans people and that the transgender community should not have 'caused a fuss over nothing'.

Intentions not withstanding, the advert is offencive.  It doesn't matter what they were trying to do, they were using the transgender community, an incredibly marginalised and oppressed community, to further their own ends.  It might not be offencive to everyone, but surely those people who do not find it offencive can understand why it can be found to be in poor taste?

And to those who are still finding this kind of thing acceptable, and even attack the trans community and their allies when they find this kind of thing offencive, congratulations on never having to deal with oppression in your lives, now kindly shut up and respect our god damned opinions on what is and isn't offencive to our community.

Amy.
xx

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Tuesday 14 July 2015

German Chancellor Angela Merkel Believes Same Sex Marriage Shouldn't Be Called A Marirage









German Chancellor Angela Merkel has gone on record as saying that whilst she believes same-sex marriage should be allowed, it should be named something other than marriage.  'For me, personally, marriage is a man and a woman living together.  That is my concept, but I support civil partnerships.'






The German head of state answered questions from the online community as she took part in an interview with German Youtube star Florian Mundt, also known as LeFloid, as part of the 'Gut Leben' (good living) campaign.




When asked about her stance on marriage equality Merkel replied 'I'm someone who is very supportive of us eliminating all discrimination.  We have come a long way, when I remember 25 years ago, many people didn't dare say that they are gay or lesbian.  Luckily we overcame this, you can enter a partnership, a civil partnership.'




'For me, personally, marriage is a man and a woman living together.  this is my concept, but I support civil partnerships', she continued.  'I support us not discriminating against them when it comes to taxes, and to remove any other discrimination wherever we may find it.'




Mundt questioned Merkel on wanting to keep marriage between same-sex couples and straight couples separate whilst giving them the same legal rights.




'For me there is still a difference.'  She tried to explain.  'It's not the same, but they [same sex couples] want the same.  Everything else is an exclusion for me.  I don't want discrimination and I want equality, but I make a difference at some point.'




Her interviewer, quite rightly, tried to point out the absurdity of in one breath claiming to want equality, then in the next continue to differentiate between the two types of marriage.  'So you could say no to discrimination, but we'll keep differentiating between the two?'




'No discrimination,' Merkel responded.  'Marriage as a man and a woman living together.'




This bizarre double standard of saying, 'we wont discriminate and we support you, but we will treat you differently' is very baffling and very concerning.  If the chancellor of Germany does not see what she has said as being discriminatory it could lead to some very concerning situations arising for the German LGBT community.




Amy.
xx





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Wednesday 8 July 2015

Image Comic 'Airboy' Offends Members of the Transgender Community, James Robinson Issues an Apology


Comic book writer James Robinson has come under fire this week after the second issue of his Image published book Airboy was released.  A semi-autobiographical story that follows a fictionalised James Robinson and the books artist Greg Hinkle as they do drugs and drink alcohol to the point where reality begins to fall apart and the two of them share a collective hallucination of 1950's comicbook character Airboy coming to life in their world.

The second issue of the book sees Robinson and Hinkle take Airboy to a bar, where the character quickly gets enthralled by the beautiful women around him.  Hinkle and Robinson are fully aware that the bar is full of transgender women and Hikle begins to try and explain this, however, Robinson cuts him off and allows Airboy to go off and party.

Robinson then turns to Hinkle and says to him 'What are you thinking?  Don't tell him this place is filled with tranny's and drag queens.  He'll flip the fuck out.'

Later in the issue we see both Robinson and Airboy in bathroom stalls receiving oral sex from transgender women, who are drawn with their skirts hitched up and their genitals hanging out, I would imagine for either 'comedic effect' of to 'disturb' the reader.  Afterwards Hinkle says to Robinson 'you got blown by a tranny'.

Finally Airboy comes storming back in a rage after discovering the woman giving him oral sex was a 'woman with a penis' after asking him to return the favour.  He even asks Robinson, 'so your girl was a man as well?'  before storming off complaining about the 'sick', 'ugly' and 'degenerate' world.

Now, the problems with this should be fairly obvious to most people, but in case you can't see it let me outline the issues.  First of all, as I have stated in previous articles, tranny is a transphobic hate word and a slur used to dehumanise transgender people.  Some of you may have come across that word in use in some trans communities, but whenever it is it's being done as a way of reclaiming a word that is used in the porn industry or by abusers.  It is not a good word, and it should never, ever, be used by anyone who themselves is not trans.  The frequent and casual use of the word in this comic by cisgender men reinforces the notion that this is the only way to refer to trans women and perfectly acceptable.


Not only is tranny used in this book to dehumanise trans women, their complete lack of a face or a voice means that the only opinion on the matter we have in the book is by three men, all of whom seem happy to refer to trans women as actually being 'men' instead of women.  The trans women in this book are being used as a target, as a thing to attack without any humanisation.  Not once are any of the trans women called by a name, or speak a single word.  We're set dressing and punchline material only.

The way the trans women are drawn in this issue adds to this.  In the scene where the two characters are receiving oral sex the trans women are drawn as over-the-top caricatures of what someone who has done Little to no research on the subject would think we look like.  The faces aren't shown, as they're busy with a mouthful of cock, but the woman pleasuring Airboy is portrayed with overly large hands that look immediately outofplace on the character, that's if you've even noticed it over the cock and balls hanging out of their skirts.

Not only does this scene try to show trans women as being a collection of male parts in a skirt, but reinforces the massively damaging trope that we are simply sex workers or sex hungry nymphos who will take the first man we come across into the bathroom and perform sexual acts on them.  I've lost count of the number of random men who when realising I'm trans go straight to the subject of sex, or send me unwanted pictures of their genitals, all the while stating, 'well you're a tranny, you're always up for some cock'.

Airboys reaction to the realisation that the woman he's with is trans, after being happy to receive oral sex from her, is one of anger and disgust.  This scene is a particularly damaging one, as its showing people that reacting this way to trans women is the norm, that it's okay to get angry or even violent.  This is a very real danger to trans women, who are so often facing acts of physical and sexual abuse by men.  Nine transgender people have been murdered in the US alone this year, and in all states except California the defence of 'trans panic' can still be used.


The whole portrayal of trans women in this one issue of Airboy, they way they aren't given a voice, the way they're played as sex workers, the way they're being used as 'traps' to seduce unaware straight men, the way the 'heroes' of the book talk about them is all horrific.  It's even worse when you consider just how progressive Image Comic has been trying to be this last year.

At the Image Comics Expo last year company CEO Eric Stephenson highlighted the need for diversity in the medium, even choosing to chastise the industry for treating 'gender equality and cultural issues as if they're little more than gimmicks to increase sales'.  I for one am very interested to see how Image is planning to react to the controversy regarding the book and if they choose to issue an apology, fire James Robinson or recall the book.

Robinson, himelf an advocate for LGBT issues and a winner of the GLAAD Media Awards nomination for Outstanding Comic Book, has gone on to release an apology online;

'I thought long and hard before writing this response, with the time it’s taken me to do so I fear having been misinterpreted as indifference on my part to the ire this sequence has caused for some. Often public figures just issue a quick apology, a snippet of contrition, in the hope that the light of scorn will then shine away from them. But those apologies often feel inauthentic or meaningless, and I didn't want to do that.

'It was with much regret that I learned how I had angered and offended members of the transgender community with a sequence I wrote in the second issue of the Airboy mini-series I am currently doing. As anyone who has read the first issue will know, this series is a semi-autobiographical piece of meta-fiction that shows me at a self-destructive and unhappy time in my life before I sobered up and entered a better place in both my work and the world as a whole. To illustrate this, I portray myself and my artist Greg Hinkle as two blithe idiots pin-balling through a succession of stupid and self-destructive actions, doing and saying stupid and thoughtless things. I intentionally portray myself in the worst light possible and as the worst kind of person.

'Stepping outside of myself and the work, I can see how, while my intention when writing the scene was never to defame or harm the trans community, I did indeed fuck up and for that I sincerely apologize.

'In my intention to create an ugly version of me and my world, I have inadvertently hurt and demeaned a community that the real non-fictionalized version of myself truly respects and admires.

'It’s a sad and terrible fact that the transgender community is one that is often misunderstood and mocked. And that honestly, truly, breaks my heart. It is a beautiful community full of shining souls, which in a different work on a different day I would proudly show in all its variety and wonder. Honestly, that is the truth. Anyone who actually knows me, knows my feelings on such matters, and anyone who doesn’t will just have to take my word for it.

'And yet here I am, in my eagerness to create a scenario that mocks my own moral worthlessness, I do no better than the worst kind of person, blindly marking the transgender community with the same sullying brush I chose to paint myself -- instead of giving it the dignity and respect it deserves and is so very often denied.

'This is a work of deliberately ugly satirical fiction. One part of me believes a creator has the right to tell the story he feels the need to tell. There’s a part of me that feels that it’s acceptable for a work of fiction to hurt or offend. That at the very least the work elicits feelings.

'Then there’s the other part of me -- the major part, I might add -- that is truly saddened that the transgender community, comprising men and women who carry the burden of an ever-hostile society, should have me adding to their load.

'There is minor solace -- very minor -- in the fact that I note the discourse I’m seeing on-line about this, is at least allowing an exchange of views that I think is open, healthy and ultimately a good thing. I hope comic book fans and creators will think more critically about the way trans characters are portrayed.

'I consider myself an ally to the LGBT community and I promise to work harder in the future to ensure that any trans stories or characters in my work are portrayed in a thoughtful and accepting way.

 
'I know this response won’t satisfy everyone, but it comes from the heart. I love all people. I wanted this statement to convey my complete feelings on the matter.'


Despite his apology many members of the community are still angry that the book was allowed to be published, and rightfully so, by a company that is advocating equality and positive representation of minority groups.  There has as of yet been no statement as to what action Image will take over the controversy.



Amy.
xx



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Tuesday 7 July 2015

Mens Rights Activist Peter Nolan Publicly Calls for the Murder of Women As 'The Only Path of Justice For Men'


If anyone is familiar with Men's Rights Activists you'll know that they have a history of wanting to strip women of their rights, that they frequently harass and abuse women and in some cases even threaten violence against us.  Now most of these threats are empty, they're the general 'I will hurt/mill you if you keep pissing me off' or the 'I'll find out where you are and get you' kind of threats, that whilst mostly lead to no actual physical harm do deeply hurt those people they're being said to.

What I find to be the problem with Men's Rights Activists though, other than the open threats and disrespect towards women, is their baffling belief that all women are against men and that we're trying to destroy their rights or their way of life.  For the most part feminists are simply trying to gain equal rights to men.  Equal being the key word.

Men's Rights Activists, however, whilst saying that they are fighting for men and boys to be treated equally to the way women are being treated, regularly try to take away what women have and push us into oppression, and threats of violence seem to go hand in hand with that.

Whilst most Men's Rights Activists make somewhat veiled threats of violence, the 'don't make me angry' kind of threats, a leading voice in their movement, Peter Nolan, has called for the open murder of women as a way of finally allowing Men's Rights Activists the 'justice' they deserve.

A well known campaigner for their movement, Peter Nolan has written several articles and blogs praising the poor treatment and murder of women.  He publicly defended and praised the actions of convicted mass murderer Anders Breivik, stating;

'It is only natural and normal that some men decide to take matters into their own hands at all the hatred spewed at them and their marginalisation.  Men often see that some things are worth fighting for.  Men often take the action to fight for what they believe in.

'Anders Breivik is not crazy.  He's as rational as the next man.  He sees that his country is being destroyed.  He sees that the people responsible for that destruction are the left of politics.  and he would be correct.  He took action to stop what he believes is the destruction of his country.

'I've been telling women for three years now that hatred of men in general and fathers in particular is going to see men killing a lot of women and children.  Well?  We just saw 76.'

Nolan has moved on from simply praising the actions of mass murders and blaming women for all of the problems in the world and has begun to actively encourage the murder of women, claiming that it is the natural next step in the 'war' between men and their horrid oppressors, women.


Nolan has been encouraging his followers to kill women, telling them (quite falsely too) that the murder of women by men has become legal in both Australia and Ireland.


Obviously, no such laws exist in either Australia or Ireland that allow the lawful murder of women.  Nolan is claiming that it has become legal as women are now considered 'enemies in a state of war', and as such any man who murders a woman will face no prison time what-so-ever.

Hopefully there are many Men's Rights Activists who will see these claims for a bogus as they really are, unfortunately I'm sure there will be a handful of extremists who will be looking at these tweets and considering the possibility of murdering women.

Men's Rights Activists are not fighting for equality.  they are fighting for oppression and dominace over women.  They are men who want complete control and will do whatever they think needs doing to get it.  They want to turn back the clock to a time where a woman's place was waiting quietly at home for her husband and master, where her only jobs were cooking, cleaning and getting pregnant.

Yes, Peter Nolan is clearly an extreme case of Men's Rights Activism, he's advocating killing women who stand against oppression, but the movement as a whole can be extremely dangerous.   If you are a Men's Rights Activist please look at what this man is saying and start to think about just what you're supporting.  Realise that women aren't an enemy.  We're not calling for the deaths of every man, we're not advocating mass murder. 

Men and women nee to work together for equality, and Men's Rights Activists are the real enemy of equality, not women.

Amy.
xx

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